Person

J. Daniel Hays

American Old Testament scholar, senior professor of Old Testament at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and professor emeritus of biblical studies at Ouachita Baptist University, where he served for nearly three decades as dean of the Pruet School of Christian Studies. His From Every People and Nation: A Biblical Theology of Race (2003) traces ethnic inclusion across the canon and gives sustained attention to the Cushites, the black Africans of ancient Cush, in Old and New Testament history.

The codex cites him on race and ethnicity in Scripture, chiefly in answering Black Hebrew Israelite readings of the text. He should not be confused with Richard B. Hays, the Duke New Testament scholar the codex cites on Paul and on the New Testament use of the Old.

Life

• B.S. in Civil Engineering, New Mexico State University, 1976.
• Th.M. in Bible Exposition, Dallas Theological Seminary, 1980.
• Served with his wife as a missionary in Ethiopia.
• Ph.D. in Old Testament, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1991, with a dissertation titled "An Exegetical and Theological Study of the Abrahamic Covenant."
• For nearly three decades dean of the Pruet School of Christian Studies and professor of biblical studies at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkansas, now professor emeritus there.
• Senior professor of Old Testament at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
• Member of the Society of Biblical Literature, the Institute for Biblical Research and the Evangelical Theological Society.

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Major works

• From Every People and Nation: A Biblical Theology of Race, New Studies in Biblical Theology 14, edited by D. A. Carson (InterVarsity Press, 2003).
• The Message of the Prophets: A Survey of the Prophetic and Apocalyptic Books of the Old Testament (Zondervan, 2010).
• Jeremiah and Lamentations, Teach the Text Commentary Series (Baker, 2016).
• The Temple and the Tabernacle (Baker, 2016).
• A Christian's Guide to Evidence for the Bible (Baker, 2020).
• The Pentateuch: Life in the Presence of God (B&H Academic, 2024).
• The ICHTHUS Christogram and Other Early Christian Symbols (Kregel, 2025).
• With J. Scott Duvall: Grasping God's Word: A Hands-On Approach to Reading, Interpreting, and Applying the Bible (4th ed., Zondervan, 2020); Journey into God's Word (2nd ed., Zondervan, 2020); Living God's Word (2nd ed., Zondervan, 2021); God's Relational Presence: The Cohesive Center of Biblical Theology (Baker, 2019); The Baker Illustrated Bible Background Commentary (Baker, 2020).

Thought

1. A biblical theology of race. From Every People and Nation traces the theme of ethnicity and the inclusion of the nations through the canon, following its continuity and development from Genesis to Revelation.
2. The Cushite presence. The book argues that black Africans from Cush play an important role in both Old and New Testament history, a point that recovers African presence in Scripture from within a confessional reading of the text.
3. Interpretive method. His textbooks with J. Scott Duvall, above all Grasping God's Word, teach a step-by-step method for moving from the meaning of a passage in its original setting to its application today.

How the codex uses him

• Cushites in Scripture. Africans in Scripture Argument cites From Every People and Nation as the most systematic biblical-theological treatment of race, including the reading of Zephaniah's ancestor Cushi in Zephaniah 1:1.
• Against the Black Hebrew Israelite reading. Israelites Were Black Racial Descriptors Objection Defeater cites him for the standard treatment of Cushite inclusion in the covenant community, which grants real African presence while denying that Israel as a whole was a black African people.
• Gentile inclusion. Gentiles Cannot Be Saved Objection Defeater cites the book on ethnic and racial inclusion across the canon.
• The master frame. The Hebrew Israelite Defense names him among the scholars who represent contemporary orthodox engagement with the movement.

See also

• Richard B. Hays, the New Testament scholar of the same surname, a different person
• Africans in Scripture Argument, the argument that draws most on his book
• Israelites Were Black Racial Descriptors Objection Defeater, where his treatment of the Cushites answers the racial reading
• Gentiles Cannot Be Saved Objection Defeater, on the inclusion of the nations
• The Hebrew Israelite Defense, the master frame for the Hebrew Israelite cluster